PART 3
One of the historical physical structures that remains on Bau Island today used to be the tallest in the village skyline of olden day Fiji.
It is called Vatanitawake. One of the most comprehensive studies of Bau’s Vatanitawake can be found in the research by Aubrey Parke titled “Investigations of Vatanitawake: A ceremonial mound on the island of Bau, Fiji”.
According to Parke the earliest recorded settlers on Bau Island were traditional fishermen and seafarers who made up two groups referred to as the people of Levuka and Butoni .
The people of Levuka lived on the hill called Delaikorolevu and were also known as Kai Delaikorolevu while those from Butoni lived on part of the flat land referred to as ‘Naulunivuaka’ and were also referred as ‘Kai Naulunivuaka’.
Abrey said Vatanitawake (meaning shelf for flags) was built to worship the deified kalou vu named Ratu Mai Bulu. The Vatanitawake was the mound on which successive Roko Tui Bau would spread their tawake (flag) to dry after a sailing expedition.
After Ratu Seru Cakobau adopted Christianity, temples on Bau were destroyed and their mounds were razed to the ground except Vatanitawake and Navico.
Later, Vatanitawake was used as the foundation mound of the Bau meeting house, which had been built by 1879 when Sir Arthur Gordon opened the first council of chiefs meeting to be held on Bau island, following the Deed of Cession of 1874.
According to the writings of Deve Toganivalu, Vatanitawake was where the Roko Tui Bau was usually installed.
He described the chiefly installation at Vatanitawake this way: During this ceremony, the chiefly yaqona was drunk not out of a coconut cup but out of a banana leaf cup called ai kavilo.
Toganivalu made no reference to the cannibal stone. Parke said James Hornell (1926) stated that the stone was used when Ratu Cakobau was proclaimed chief of Bau. Hornell described the stone as a vatu ni veibuli (according to information he received from Ratu Popi, then Vunivalu).
However, he was told the stone was originally a vatu ni bokola or stone against which the head of a human victim was dashed prior to being cooked and eaten.
Hornell also explained that during preparation for war, the mataqali (clan) first presented feast for their own gods (vakana kalou or feeding the gods) in their own temples.
Then they gathered together to present a bigger feast at Vatanitawake, before worshipping .
When the chiefs had assembled in the temple, yaqona was prepared for the so kalou so that the priest could drink and the god would enter him and tell the assembled chiefs about what would happen during the coming fight.
After a prayer (masu) had been offered to Ratu Mai Bulu, the priest would drink and the god would enter him and tell the chiefs what would happen to them and how many enemies they would kill. They would then feast together and proceed to the fight.
After victory, the corpses of the enemy dead were dragged to the temple where their heads would be dashed against the stone kept for the purpose.
The Roko Tui Bau decided which bodies were to be eaten and which were to be buried.
The spoils of war such as the clubs and spears taken by the victorious warriors, were also taken to the temple as an offering (i sigani) to the great god.
Parke noted that when Viwans captured the French brig L’Aimable the captain and some of the crew, they took the anchor of the boat to Vatanitawake as an offering to the god.
The anchor was still there around Parke’s research and a photograph taken in 1969 by Peter Bellwood showed it.
Parke said the anchor may have been in the drawing by Calvert.
He said there were two eyewitness accounts of the use of the Vatanitawake for the two purposes recorded by Toganivalu, that is, it was a place for consultation with the god and a place where the paramount chief was installed, Both Toganivalu’s accounts were recorded from Calvert.
In 1851, Ratu Cakobau invited him (Calvert) to witness ceremonies which took place before an attack on Nakelo, a Rewa stronghold. Firstly, Cakobau and Calvert went to Cakobau’s small family temple to call upon the god for protection and success. Then they went to the main temple.
The ceremony started with an old chief advancing, bearing on his shoulder a root of green yaqona.
He appealed to the gods to help them destroy their enemies and avenge grievances.
In a few minutes the high priest was seen trembling, which increased in violence, until he seemed convulsed. Calvert noted that the god, through the lips of the priest, then proclaimed his advent, and every head-dress was doffed, and all ornaments tripped from the persons of the spectators (Calvert 1860).
He said the god then spoke and said “I have conquered many placthe god of war”. The ceremony ended and the expedition started.
Parke said it may have been to this occasion that writer Joseph Waterhouse (1866) referred to when he stated that “the king had made an immense offering of riches to his Mars, which filled the temple…The greater portion of this was the property of the high priest”.
According to Parke, it was presumably the high priest’s portion which remained in the temple and which was later mostly destroyed by fire, the remainder being stolen by fishermen.
Parke added that Vatanitawake was therefore used not only as a place where the Vunivalu could consult Cagawalu through the medium of the bete or priest, but also a storehouse for the goods presented as an offering to enlist the help of the war god.
Waterhouse also noted Cakobau was formally installed as Vunivalu on July 26, 1853 and the bodies of 18 persons had been secured as a feast for the occasion. Parke said this time Calvert did not come as an invited guest, but rather to try and save the lives of some of the proposed victims.
Calvert wrote (1860) in his modest style of using the third person when referring to himself.
“As the Missionary approached the great temple – Vata-ni Tawake – a dead stillness rested upon Bau, which was suddenly broken by a great shout proclaiming that Thakobau had just drunk the yaqona of the Vunivalu, during the preparation of which none were allowed to move about,” Calvert noted.
The Lasakau quarters made known that the bodies were being dragged to the temple. “…the dead and the dying dragged along by their hands, naked with their heads rattling and grating over the rough ground,” Calvert said.
As each approached the temple, the head was violently dashed against a great stone, which became stained with blood.
Parke said it was entirely probable that the war god of the Vunivalu (Cagawalu) should have replaced, once the Vunivalu had achieved paramountcy over the Roko Tui Bau, the deified original ancestor of the latter, Ratu Mai Bulu, as the main god to be worshipped in the chief temple of Bay.
However, he said it was not clear when Cagawalu was first worshipped at Vatanitawake, even as a lesser god than Ratu Mai Bulu.
Parke said the alternative descriptive title of the god who was worshipped at Vatanitawake was Ko Mai Vatanitawake (He from Vatanitawake) which could be applied to either Ratu Mai Bulu or to Cagawalu.
Parke said the use of the temple mound of Ratu Mai Bulu as the mound for the temple of Cagawalu would give some expression of credibility to the new god.
He said the erection of the new temple on the old mound would be an outward and visible symbol of the validation of the supremacy of the secular power of the Vunivalu over the sacred power of the Roko Tui Bau.
Parke added that it was not all clear whether Vatanitawake, when used primarily as a bure kalou for Cagawalu, was a single platform or whether it was terraced.
“Tradition is silent but evidence as to what the bure kalou and its mound looked like is forthcoming from contemporary accounts by visitors and missionaries.”
History being the subject it is, a group’s version of events may not be the same as that held by another group. When publishing one account, it is not our intention to cause division or to disrespect other oral traditions. Those with a different version can contact us so we can publish your account of history too — Editor.
PART 4 NEXT WEEK
